Endurance.Net Ridecamp Archives

The Californios 65 &100 was held on Saturday.? There were 11 horses in the 
65 miler and 29 or 30 horses in the 100.? This certainly dispels any rumors 
that 100 mile rides are losing popularity. <g> I would consider this a "no 
frills" ride but Marge and? Vern did an excellent job in marking trail and 
providing water along the entire 100 mile course which to me is more important then 
all the frills that could be offered.? 
? ?? I rode in the 100 mile ride and found the new course a bit more 
challenging then the last time I rode this race a couple years ago.? It could be 
because I was riding one of my own horses instead of borrowing one of Suzy Kelley's 
well conditioned mounts or it could be because this year there was a little 
more climbing added to the trail.? I had heard that there was over 9,000 feet 
of climb in the 100 mile course but that could be the beginning of "endurance 
legend" much like the 120+ degree temperatures that are endured in the canyons 
on the Tevis Cup.? I don't remember much flat but I do remember measuring it 
in yards not miles:)? Please don't interpret my comments as a criticism - I am 
not complaining.? For me, finishing this type of ride with a sound and happy 
horse was a huge accomplishment and a definite milestone for Fox's endurance 
career.? For most of the ride, my focus was on surviving the trail and the heat 
and keeping myself and my horse hydrated and eating.? This ride certainly 
brought out the "us against the trail" mentality and forced me to use a lot of 
endurance skills like tailing, negative splits, spending a lot of time on the 
ground, taking extra time in vet checks and water stops, and timing electrolyte 
doses.?? To me, a ride like this is endurance in the truest sense and when you 
finish you know you have really accomplished something.? I rode this ride 
without crew but I was given lots of help in the vet checks from ride volunteers 
when they were not busy, other rider's crew, and from people I didn't even 
know.? At every vet check someone would make sure I had a chair to sit in and 
before I left they made sure my water bottles were full, and made sure my crew bag 
would be at the next check.? I don't think I could have finished the ride 
feeling so good if it weren't for the help I was given at the checks.
? ?? I think the field of 100 mile horses was incredible, especially the 
first 6 horses.? These horses started the ride at a very fast pace (IMO) and were 
able to maintain their lead and finish over 2 hours before the next group of 
horses.? These top horses looked incredible through out the entire ride -- all 
of them had quick recoveries at all the vet checks.? The 1st place horse 
(Benjy (sp) -Judy Reens) which also won BC had ONLY 9 minutes of recovery time in 
the entire 100 mile ride!? The other 5 horses must have been close to that 
overall recovery time as the entire group rode together for much of the ride.? I 
saw several of these top horses this morning and you would never guess they had 
finished such a difficult course at speed.? The last place horses finished at 
around 3:30 which was a very respectable finishing time for such a difficult 
ride.? I believe that was Marcy Cunningham who was mentoring a rider on her 
first 100 mile ride.? I think 6 horses were pulled in the 100 - 5 lameness and 1 
metabolic.? I can't tell you much about the 65 miler except Cherry Stockton 
and Freebee won the ride and Dick Fonseca and Alidar were awarded BC.? There 
was only 1 pull and that was for lameness.?